Friday, May 11, 2007

A pair of poems for Mother’s Day

I love my mom, but I’ve always thought of Mother’s Day as holiday promoted by the greeting card industry. Even as a mom myself, I just don’t get this whole thing. It’s nice to acknowledge our moms, of course, but the holiday is so loaded with saccharine expressions that are just a bit cheesy IMO. That said, I wanted to share two poems that I find meaningful on the subject of parents and parenting. One, “Warmth” is written by a child and the other “Grown Children,” is by New York Poet Laureate, Sharon Olds. Together, they have us looking ahead and looking backward…

WarmthBy Richard FurstGrade 10

I walked through the empty kitchento the door,to leave the warmth of homefor the bitter-cold anxiety ofa Monday at school.Ducking the old dogwood outside,I heard a familiar call,and turned to see my motherwaving me off to school,sending me a small fireto keep my heart a little warmer.

From Ten-Second Rainshowers: Poems by Young People compiled by Sanford Lyne. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

And pair with Sharon Olds’ poem about “Grown Children” which begins observing a baby toddling on the beach and ends with the lines:

Grown Childrenby Sharon Olds

… And now our daughteris asleep on the couch, not six poundsthirteen ounces, but about my size,her great, complex, delicate facerelaxed. And our son, last night, looking closelyat his sweetheart as they whispered for a moment, what a tenderlistening look he had. We raised themdaily, I mean hourly—every minutewe were theirs, no hour went by we were notraising them—carrying them, bearing them, lifting themup, for the pleasure, and so they could see,out, away from us.

About Me

Sylvia Vardell is a professor and author of the ALA bestseller POETRY ALOUD HERE, also POETRY PEOPLE, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION, and the co-editor of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY series (for K-5 and for 6-8), as well as the first digital anthologies of poetry for young people, the POETRY TAG TIME series-- all in collaboration with poet Janet Wong. Vardell is also the poetry columnist for ALA’s BOOK LINKS magazine. A frequent speaker at conferences, Vardell chaired the NCTE Poetry Award committee and has served as a consultant to the Poetry Foundation.